I honestly find GT to be sterile and dull, it hasn't really grown with the times in terms of feel and despite some improvement it still remains very much the cliched "bumper cars with vacuum cleaners for engines" game. Even though I'm all for a sim, it just doesn't excite me or feel exhilarating in the slightest, it makes me feel cold. PD must have enormous resources by now, but I don't see where it's going as it just doesn't seem to grow much. I've always been a PlayStation gamer primarily, but I have to give credit where credit is due, Forza MS has pretty much outclassed it for me. I feel like PD are just going through the motions while T10 seem to really push forward.
DC was flat out my favourite racing game, it certainly wasn't a sim but it wasn't too arcadey either, it just struck that perfect simcade balance, a kinda luxurious hollywood realism. As you mention, the sense of speed is unmatched. I can feel the passion of the devs oozing out of the game.
The odd thing is, that while GT may be the supposedly realistic one with all the physically correct simulation going on, DC actually feels more like how it feels to drive an actual car. I've driven a few cars that are in each game and GT may get the numbers right, but no doubt about it, DC nails the sensation.. I also find the overbearing "stiffness" in GT to be a drag, cars don't steer that way in real life, I find it's just being difficult because difficult supposedly = realistic.
I hope GT7 can prove me wrong, I loved GT once too, but that was a different time. :'(
With it disappearing off the store, I'll be clinging to my physical copy of DC indefinitely (would barely even get a fiver for it now anyway). It's criminal that Sony didn't fork out for a Pro patch at least (even if they had to outsource it post-dissolution of evo studios). Given that the OG target for DC was 60fps and they only locked to 30fps because they wanted to guarantee stability, I wouldn't have been at all surprised if the 1.60GHz>2.13GHz could have netted a pretty solid 60fps, alongside a bump to at least 1440p. It's a beautiful looking game but it's starting to look a little crispy now that I'm playing it on a 55" 4K OLED as opposed to the 42" 1080p LCD I initially played it on.
Saying that, the 30fps on DC is excellent, the 30fps is solid, frame-times are perfect, latency is great, internal simulation is running higher I believe and there's no apparent tearing, plus there's great motion blur. While 60fps will of course be preferable, there's nothing unpleasant about it and it's certainly not night and day with other 60fps racers.